Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-08-01
A SOUTH SEA ROMANCE.

When the ice broke up in the river the
banks Of the stream were Immediately
lined with people who seemed To fill O
long felt want" In their innermost souls
by watching the grinding rasping cakes
oi ice as they came crashing over the fall
in company with numerous stray logs
and went hosting down the turbulen,
river There had been numerous Incl,
dents of startling character in the course
of the forenoon. such rs an incipient Jam
al the bridge, and two Or three freckled
urchins getting ducking, but Il WAS not
till afternoon that the event of the day oc-
Cured.
When the ice had swept down to a
point opposite Goat Island q dark object
was sighted lying in the center of one OF
the largest cakes of ice. Glasses were al
once brought into use. and thrill of hor
ror ran through the crowd as it was seen
that the dark object was evidently a man.
There was no boat above the fails, and il
there had been il would have been mat
ter IF life or death to venture out in that
dangerous mixture Of ice. logs and
stumps. with a likelihood of being drawn
over the falls.
The nan was apparently dead. The
shouts Of the crowd and the rough scrap
Ing Of rope, which some one had thrown
Rc-oss his face, caused no stir in the re-
clining figure. The block Of ice rapidly
neared the edge Of the falls, and the hor-
r!fied spectators saw man and ice dive
over the faEs into the foam beneath. Two
minutes passed, when suddenly the block
of ice shot up into sight, and, strange to
say, the man was still there The ice
cake at last got into an eddy, and as it
swept around near the banks was lassoed
by a skillful throw, and the ice and its
burden were hauled up to the edge. An
attempt was made 10 lift the body Of, but
il was found that the clothing was frozen
firmly in the ice, and rather than undress
him they chopped him out with an ice
pick and carried him into jerks grocery
store. A physician was hastily sum
moned, who startled the people 10y
announcing that the man was not
dead, only drunk As soon as the
man was thawed out, Bangs, the con
stable, arrested hi, and lugged him of
to the lock up on charge of drunkenness
and reveling. This morning, Bangs
came down to my house and said he
wanted me to so up and see his prisoner
Bangs said that the judge didn't know
" uht W ho WIN hAu Sot Itic
judge to sentence the prisoner to three
days hard labor in his Bangs garden.
As we walked up the road to the house
Bangs explained what he wanted Of me-
You see," said he, my yard needs
clearing up, and SO I got him TO do a
couple Of days work in it. He is an old
man; has been a sailor nearly all his life.
He says he got lost up here ON a tramp in
the country Wednesday night, and he
took aboard load Of whisky to keep
warm-took too much, he reckOns-and
got slceply and laid down To sleep. I've
got ball and chain on his leg, SOS he
can't run away, and have got my little
boy TO watch him. | went home an hour
or two ago and found him seated on the
ball. telling the youngster a story, while
the boy did the work. heard part Of
the story. It's so wonderful l thought
you'd like 10 hear il"
Just then we entered the yard, went
round back OF the house, and Bangs in
troduced Inc to the ancient mariner, as he
was called. lie had refused to give his
name. passed over three cart wheels"
and he commenced.
Its queer sort of story anyway, and
maybe You won't believe it. To begin
with, when l was youngester, some fifty
or sixty years ago. | used TO live in the
next house 10 another young fellow, John
]. Jones He was different from the rest
OF us. and while we other boys used to
play 'one, two, three, as the now popu-
lar game Of base ball used to Ike known,
he used to be reading up on natural
history and such like, and after while
he got taken up with stock breeding
fancy milch cows, fast trotters. big hogs,
etc. Before I ran away to sea he had
taken first prize at the state fair for
huge OK In the spring of the next year
he suddenly left town, going nobody
knew where. ran away to sea shortly
atterward. About two years ago l was
washed overheard from the clipper
ship Terror, bound from Chingook,
China, to Boston with n load Of tea.
Some one had seen ME 60 overheard and
had thrown hencoop over. l managed
to get up on the hencOop, lashed myself
there by my shirt, which l tore Up into
strips. and then I lay there, and every
time the hencoop and myself would come
up on the top OF big wave, | would
watch the ship as it drove off before the
storm and gradually disappeared in the
flying mist. Before long the ship was
out Of sight. and, wearied as was, | sank
into a deep, stupOr like sleep.
Il don't know how long remained in
that state but il must have been day
or two. for when woke up found my
self still on the hencoop and floating
around In a sort of a little lagoon in a
large island A sort Of eddy set IN there,
and noticed that WAS going round in a
circle that WAS gradually growing larger.
A hundred feet Away | saw to my horror
that there were three natives crouched
down there in the sun, anXiously watch
ing me and the hencoop, patiently waiting
Tor the time when | would drift near
enough for them 10 get Inc. found that
could not move my body an inch, but
nv head WAS free and | could move it
about enough to keep those natives in
sight. kept drifting by that point at i'll
tervals VI an hour, and by and by the sun
went down and the natives built a fire
and sat around it. They kept an eye on
me. ano bimeby one of them came down
10 the water and watched me as floated
lazily past, evidently trying to determine
how much nearer | was to the land than
before Pretty soon he went back to the
fire again, and l could hear loud talking
and what seemed TO be arguments.
Bimeby one OF the fellows ran down to
the shore, looked at me awhile, calculated
the extent of the circle and hurried back
to the fire Then they commenced all ar
gument. and pretty soon the fellow with
the stick took off a necklace OF something
that flashed in the fire light and laid it on
the sand. Quick as thought the otheI
chap took off his necklace and covered
the other fellows.
They were evidently betting on mt
/ how many turns | would make before
| they'd get me. The native with the stitch
| had the most nerve, for bimeby, after .
| remark from the other fellow, he took on
his breech clout, which WAS richly trimmed
with feathers, and shook it in the othel
chaps face. l guess he wanted to be
| that, but the other chap wouldn't I take th'
bet, and pretty soon he dressed himself
This display Of human nature eased M
somewhat, and pretty soon i went Il
! sleep. When / woke up the sun wa
quite high, and was just drifting
by the point. The natives were still Their
and the two necklaces still lay on tn